Florida enjoys Movies in the Park

The On Florida Community Forum partnered with various local security companies to host a Movies in the Park night last Friday.

The event included a night market and was held on Hoërskool Florida’s sports grounds. For as little as R40 per adult and R20 per child, families could enjoy two animation movies, Mr Peabody and Sherman and Mr Popper’s Penguins. Popcorn and various other snacks and meals were sold, but attendees also could bring and enjoy their own picnic baskets. Blankets covered the sports fields where children played while watching the movies and adults sat in camping chairs.

“The idea was to give families a friendly, safe environment in which to enjoy a night together,” says one of the organisers, Caleb Finn.

“Here they could engage with the outdoors, with each other and with their community,” he says.

Florida Community Market and the Johannesburg Talent Exchange (JTE) also hosted a night market where aloe juice, barista coffee, gluten-free pancakes, vegan foods, coconut oil, handmade baskets, eco-friendly cleaning products, hexa-bags, trees in bags, dream catchers, herbs and vegetable seedlings, and wooden items were sold. JTE organiser Hanneke van Linge says the market gave her a chance to engage with like-minded Roodepoorters.

“We trade in talents instead of rands; it’s a bartering system that makes our products accessible through physical product or service exchange instead of through wealth,” says Van Linge.

Throughout the movie night she crocheted brightly-coloured clothing for women while bartering with her homemade Kombucha (a fermented tea drink supposed to have various health benefits).

Greg Hogan, vice-chairperson of the Tornado Park Block Watch sold his homemade honey.

The event raised approximately R6 000 that will go towards the Florida Swimming Club’s Learn to Swim Programme. Some of the money also will fund future forum projects.

Contact Caleb Finn on 072 347 9630 for more information.